LaTaunya Pollard
Athlete
Inducted: July 2, 2005
23rd Annual Induction Ceremony
San Antonio, Texas
(The following appeared in that year’s HOF induction program)
LaTaunya Pollard was one of the most dominant players in Indiana girls basketball history - perhaps in all states across the country - during her days at Roosevelt High School in East Chicago. Indiana. Pollard compiled yearly per game scoring averages of 18, 24, 24 and 26 from 1976 to 1979 in helping her teams to a combined mark of 92-2 and two state championships. Her team's only losses in four years were in the state tournament.
In the 1977 state tournament. Pollard scored 54 points in one day - 36 in the morning game and 18 in the evening game - the second-highest one-day mark in state history. Pollard, who never missed a game in four years, was chosen Miss Basketball in Indiana after her senior season, was the most valuable player in the McDonald's all-star game and was named to the list of Indiana's 50 greatest basketball players. She was one of only two females chosen for this prestigious honor.
At California State University, Long Beach, Pollard helped her teams to a four-year combined mark of l02-26 while compiling yearly per-game scoring averages of 21, 24, 26 and 29. She was all-conference all four years, was a three-time Kodak All-American and received the Wade Trophy. Pollard, who also never missed a game at Long Beach State. is the school's all-time leading scorer with 3,001 points. Her 907 points as a senior in 1982-83 still ranks 10th all-time in NCAA statistical rankings.
In her final college game, Pollard scored 37 points in a regional final against the University of Southern California, which had Cheryl Miller, Cynthia Cooper, Pam and Paula McGee and went on to win the NCAA championship.
Pollard was chosen for the 1980 Olympic women's basketball team; however, the United States boycotted the 1980 Games in Moscow. She was inducted into the Long Beach State Hall of Fame in 2001 and the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000. Earlier this year, Pollard was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.
After her collegiate career. Pollard played professionally in Italy for eight years and recorded the highest scoring average in the 73-year history of the league. She was the top scorer every year, averaging as much as 39.5 points per game in 1985, and once scored 100 points in a game. From 1990 to 1995, she averaged 36.9 points per game for Seidis Ancona.
Pollard was born July 26, 1960, in Gary, Indiana. Now retired from professional basketball, she resides in Spring. Texas.
